• Turning off a television, a radio, or a cassette player is my cue to practice silence.

• Seeing someone meditating is a reminder that I must incorporate silence into my daily routine.

• Noting the silences in my conversations with others, I vow to use silence as a bridge rather than as a barrier.

• Blessed is the Most High who meets us in silence.

This prayer is best said with a rhythmic chanting of the words and a pause for contemplation after each line. The phrase is from Psalm 46:10.

   Be still and know that I am God.
   Be still and know that I am.
   Be still and know.
   Be still.
   Be.

This exercise, “Entering the Silence,” is based upon a practice of the Seneca (Native American) nation. The imagery is adapted from the words of Twylah Nitsch:

Close your eyes. Breathe out three times.

Listen and hear the Silence . . . Listen and see the Silence . . . Listen and taste the Silence . . . Listen and smell the Silence.

Breathe out one time. Listen and embrace the Silence.

When you are finished, open your eyes.

Silence engenders the space called, so evocatively and beautifully by David Steindl-Rast, the Benedictine monk, "God bathing." In God bathing, the body is still, speech is silent, the mind is at peace. One bathes in the presence of, the very Being of God.
— Kathleen Dowling Singh in The Grace in Dying

To Practice This Thought: Set aside a special time for God bathing.

Incorporate minutes of silence into your daily routine: observing one silent minute at your desk before beginning work, while sitting at a park bench during lunch, in your car before starting the drive home, or after watching the evening news.